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Test driving the iPad in the hospital Operating Room [Part-1]
Many, including ourselves at iMedicalApps, have speculated on the possible uses of the iPad in various healthcare settings. So we decided to test the iPad in the operating room. The first question we had was: “Will the iPad work properly in the sterile environment of the operating room?”
The short answer to that question is yes – but in the process we had some interesting findings on how the iPad’s capacitive screen works with gloves and sterile enclosures – potentially affecting how the iPad will be used in the healthcare setting.
Should medical professionals get an iPhone, Blackberry, or Android phone? It’s complicated.
Lately, I’ve often been asked the question, “What type of smartphone should I get?” by my medical peers. Â I’ve been asked this by physicians, residents, medical students, and others. Many of my friends are entering residency and plan on upgrading to a smart phone, while others already entrenched in residency have phone contracts finishing up.
The answer to this question is not easy. Rather, as Facebook nomenclature would demand, “it’s complicated”. From the title you can see I’ve excluded the Palm platform and Windows mobile phones. Palm is currently restructuring since being bought by HP, and Microsoft is in the process of rebooting their mobile division – so both currently do not possess vibrant ecosystems for app development – and won’t be included in this discussion.
How you use your mobile phone is key in choosing the right smart phone, and obviously, not all medical professionals use their phone in the same way. I’ll break down a few different scenarios, and hopefully this analysis will help you make a more informed decision about the right mobile platform for you.
Why Apps are the Future of Mobile Health
 and Electronic Health Records
Preface: Albert Santalo is Chairman and CEO of CareCloud, an innovative web-based practice management software and electronic health record technology startup. Care Cloud integrates a fluid and attractive user-interface with an efficient revenue-cycle engine, and has attracted positive attention as well as $2.3m in series A funding. Mr. Santalo is an inductee of the Florida International University Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame and was recently recognized by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce as Best Up and Coming Technology Innovator. He was previously chairman of Avisena, a revenue cycle management company. CareCloud was covered recently on this site along with an interview with Albert Santalo. We are excited to bring you a guest post by this industry leader.
By Albert Santalo
There seems to be a lot of discussion these days regarding the turbulent nature of mobile platforms and how the differences between them will impact the kind of software that will be available to physicians and other healthcare professionals.
I want to take some time today to step outside of the deep technical details and discuss why I feel that the concept of the “App” is such a revolutionary step towards empowering physicians with effective, accessible and omnipresent tools.
While most of the smartphones on the market today offer exceptional browsing experiences (it’s amazing how far we’ve come in the last 3 years), the majority of browser-based web apps don’t provide the deep functionality and usability that native apps excel at. That means they can’t properly translate the desktop experience into the palm of your hand.
I’m not saying there isn’t a plethora of amazing utilities and tools available through the mobile browser today, but most lack the ability to fully capitalize on a particular device’s features to deliver a truly compelling user experience. There are some really amazing capabilities that developers can tap into if they build a native app, because native apps can work directly with the hardware and software of the mobile device.
Apple is actively recruiting health care providers at their retail stores
When I recently walked into my local Apple store to buy an iPad accessory, I saw a group of about 20 people huddled around a large LCD screen while an Apple employee was giving a workshop.
When I saw the LCD screen full of medical applications (picture on the left), I was shocked. Â This wasn’t your run of the mill “how to use your iPhone” workshop.
The people gathered for the workshop consisted of healthcare professionals in medicine, dentistry, and other fields. Â About a third of the group consisted of physicians.
The workshop was focused on how the iPhone and iPad can be useful for their practices and as reference tools for day to day work.
The workshop was led by an Apple employee who went through a slideshow presentation of useful medical applications, such as epocrates, iMurmur, Airstrips OB, and many of the other useful applications we’ve featured on iMedicalApps before.
iPad hands on review: Fits in your white coat and is fast enough for Medical point of care use [Healthcare Perspective]
The iPad has finally been released and we’ve got our hands on one so we can provide the medical community a healthcare perspective of the device. I’ve been using the iPad for the last two days, and these are the initial impressions.
Fits in your white Coat:
The iPad should fit comfortably your white coat. If you continue on to the rest of the review you’ll see pictures of the iPad easily settling into my white coat, along with my stethoscope. Granted, my white coat has been thoroughly stretched out with mini medical reference books, papers, and medical devices, but even with a fresh white coat, you shouldn’t have problems tucking away your iPad.
For the iPad to be seriously used in the medical setting, this type of convenience is key. I can’t imagine carrying it around while I juggle patient notes and other necessities.
The iPad feels heavy in your hands(1.5 pounds), but is thin, measuring half an inch in depth. The ends of the iPad are tapered, making it feel significantly thinner. The heavy feel is almost welcome and assuring, it makes the iPad feel strong – making you feel like a drop, with a case on it, wouldn’t break it. This type of build quality is expected from an Apple device.
Top 5 Free Android Medical Apps
Health care professionals and students using Android are probably wondering what Android apps may be helpful in the health care setting.
Android developers continue to add more apps to the Market that relate to health and medical practice. While the field of apps relevant to health care professionals on Android lags far behind the iPhone OS platform, there are several apps worth noting.
Here, we look at some of the more useful medical apps for clinicians, and list a few apps for patients as well.
The fact that we chose a “Top 5″ (and not “Top 10″), indicates just how limited the Android Market currently is for medical apps.
Top 5 Medical Apps for the Upcoming iPad [Health Care Professionals Edition]
Apple has made it clear that current iPhone apps will run on the iPad. For many of the medical apps we’ve reviewed, its welcome news, but it won’t make the user experience of these apps any different. However, there are a few medical apps currently on the iPhone whose user experience should be greatly enhanced by the iPad’s 9.7 inch 1024 x 768 pixel display.
The following are the top 5 medical apps we’re excited to see in action on the iPad. This list is focused for health care professionals, and stay tuned for another list for medical students.
Why Multi-Tasking on the iPhone OS is not good for Healthcare – Especially for future Electronic Health Record Apps
It looks like the wishes of many iPhone and iPad users are soon to be answered. AppleInsider is reporting the approaching update of the iPhone OS, version 4.0, will include a “full on solution” for multi-tasking. While they acknowledge that there have been at least three previous such reports, this news is apparently from sources with a proven track record of providing reliable information. Unfortunately, there’s not much information on how Apple’s “solution” gets around the issues that had long been cited for the absence of this support – battery life, resource utilization, and security. However, those three factors are critical to the iPhone’s use in clinical practice. And with the growing adoption of mobile interfaces for electronic health records and e-prescribing, these three areas are critical to determining whether the iPhone and iPad will continue to develop as clinical tools. However, even assuming Apple has come up with a way to mitigate the negative effects multi-tasking would have on those critical areas, multi-tasking is a losing proposition for clinicians.
A Look Inside Kaiser Permanente’s Medical Tech Playground – A Conversation with Dr. Yan Chow
One of the pleasures of a large meeting like HIMSS is the chance to meet remarkable people who are creative and productive but with whom one would not otherwise cross paths. Dr. Yan Chow is a physician who’s career has spanned several spheres. He holds an advanced software engineering with three patents for network storage architecture and has launched a few Bay Area tech startups. Later, he decided to pursue an MBA and entered the Univ. California Berkeley School of Business as the “second oldest guy in the class” and, he says with a twinkle, graduated as valedictorian.
He continues to practice as a pediatrician at Northern California Kaiser but is also the director of the Kaiser Permanente Information Technology’s Innovation & Advanced Technology Group. This is a remarkable position that only a health care institution as large as Kaiser can create. In essence, his job is to survey the newest technologies and decide which ones could be implemented in the larger Kaiser health system. It is, undoubtedly, the dream job for any health care technology aficionado. But for the institution, it is a strategic asset that helps it to avoid costly purchasing mistakes. Kaiser also maintains the Sidney Garfield “Laboratory for Innovation,”a 35,000 Sq ft space with fully mocked up patient and operating rooms where real doctors and nurses trial new technologies. Dr. Chow told me a remarkable story of just how valuable these investments can be.
